International Chocolate Day
Tuesday 13th September celebrates International Chocolate day and I’m sure most of us can say we enjoy chocolate in some form (hot chocolate drink, chocolate bars, cakes etc)!
What a way to celebrate chocolate than to make your own.
As those following a vegan/plant-based diet, we are really very fortunate that we have numerous options in our shops and online to purchase and enjoy chocolates that are suitable to our dietary requirements and lifestyle choices.
For me personally, I have 3 favourite brand choices however I find it more satisfying and fulfilling to make my own as I can get creative and make the chocolate to suit my tastebuds.
I, for one, love to cook and bake most my foods, snacks and treats from scratch so making this delicious sweet treat is no different.
It is quick and easy and you can really get creative making different varieties of your favourite chocolates.
Makes 14 - 18 pieces (depending on size) or you can make a small bar or 2 (Tip: if you don’t have special moulds, you can simply make chocolate pieces in an ice cube tray)!
Ingredients
1 cup cacao butter
4 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup cacao powder (unsweetened)
1 tsp vanilla essence
Pinch of sea salt
Optional extras: 2 tbsp cacao nibs, 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder, dried fruits (cranberries, cherries, raisins etc), dried nuts of your choice (chopped/crushed).
Method
Put a heat resistant bowl over a saucepan half filled with boiling water and add the cacao butter to the bowl and melt
Once cacao butter has melted, turn heat off and whisk in gently (with a hand held whisk) all the other ingredients until you have a creamy smooth mixture
Taste and add any additional flavours you want or feel it needs to balance the flavours out
Take some chocolate moulds, small ice-cube trays, mini-cup cake tray/liners or moulds of your choice and evenly pour the chocolate mix out
Put in the freezer for 1 hour until they firm up and then you can remove them from the moulds and put them in a air tight container and keep in the fridge.
These will last in the fridge for 2 weeks
These chocolates are really versatile and you can add your favourite ingredients to them i.e. mixed dried fruits, mixed nuts or favourite nut of your choice (crushed or whole), seeds, some chilli flakes if you like it spicy - whatever you love
You can even make chocolate bars from the mix and put in a flat ice tray, again adding your favourite ingredients (fruit and nut mix works well)
You can make chocolate ‘butter’ cups also by adding some chocolate to coat the bottom of a cupcake paper, put in the freezer to firm up, fill with 1 tbsp of your favourite nut butter, top with some more chocolate and put back in the freezer to firm up and take shape.
You can take fresh strawberries dipped in the chocolate mix to create delicious scrumptious bites
You can make your own chocolate peanut/almonds or raisin clusters with this mix
